


Situation After Situation

by Rsbry_Beret



Category: Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (TV)
Genre: (I’m kidding- yes homo), 5+1, 5+1 Things, Angst and Fluff, Fluff, Getting Together, Implied Anxiety Attack, M/M, No Spoilers, Realization, and so does Tobin, kind of a get together?, leif donnelly gets the hugs he deserves, no homo tho, nonsexual physical intimacy, or at least definitely some crying and some anxiety
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-05-04
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:34:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23998351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rsbry_Beret/pseuds/Rsbry_Beret
Summary: Five times Leif Donnelly needed a hug, and one time Tobin Batra did.
Relationships: Tobin Batra/Leif Donnelly
Comments: 7
Kudos: 58





	Situation After Situation

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the song Heaven I Need A Hug by R. Kelly.  
> I haven’t seen the finale yet, I have to watch it in the morning. This does not apply *at all* to the fic, but I wanted you to share my pain.

1\. 

Leif adjusted his glasses for the third time in as many minutes, and Tobin knew something was up. 

“Bro.” Tobin scooted his chair backwards so he was sitting next to Leif. “What’s shakin’?”

Leif stared at him blankly for a second before gesturing pointlessly at the computer screen. “Emails.”

“Cool, cool. I see that, I respect that. I raise you, snack break?” 

Leif’s shoulders looked tense. He lifted his glasses to rub his eyes, and Tobin noticed the heavy shadows beneath them. Man, he was an awful friend, not even noticing how tired Leif looked. They should revoke his bro card. 

“I can’t, Tobin. I really have to get this done.” He smiled apologetically, the one he used on Joan and Zoey, not the one he usually used with Tobin. 

Tobin frowned and stood up, moving behind Leif. “Okay bro, fine. You can do your emails or whatever, but I’m giving you a shoulder massage while you do them.”

Leif froze up even more. “Uh, what?” he said, voice suddenly high. 

Tobin lay his hands firmly on Leif’s shoulders. “I’m gonna give you a massage. You need to chill, dude. You look exhausted, and you’re never going to actually get shit done if you can’t even keep your eyes open.” Tobin started rubbing Leif’s shoulders. 

“Right. Right, okay.” Life’s voice was still high. “Thanks, man.” After a second, Leif continued typing on his keyboard. 

After a few minutes Tobin started to feel his muscles relax. Good. He leaned over Leif’s shoulder to see what he was typing and saw that he had stopped doing stuff. “Dude, are you finished?”

Leif started. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I am. Sorry, guess I zoned out for a second there.”

Tobin dropped his hands and smiled at Leif when he turned around. “Cool man! Snack break?”

“Sure,” Leif replied, voice still weird and high. He rubbed his arm awkwardly and began walking towards the cereal bar. “Sounds good. Bro.”

2.

When Leif walked in the door of their apartment he looked completely drained. 

It was past Tobin why Leif always insisted on biking to work. The bus was faster, and dry when it rained, and it wasn’t like Leif didn’t get any exercise- he worked at a standing desk all day, he jogged on the weekends, he was a healthy guy. 

And anyway, on the days when Leif stayed up late gaming or worrying or working, he was always so tired the next day, and yet he still insisted that he couldn’t break the habit. It drove Tobin nuts. 

So when Tobin saw Leif, droopy shoulders and glasses askew, he couldn’t not say something. 

“Dude. Come lay down.”

Leif dropped his keys on the table and dropped onto the couch without comment. Wordlessly, he spread out, resting his head on Tobin’s lap and closing his eyes. 

Tobin held still for a second before turning the tv on, absentmindedly flipping through the channels until he landed on a nature documentary. Tobin thought they were boring, but he knew Leif liked listening to them when he needed to get to sleep. 

The British narrator said something about butterfly migration and Tobin felt Leif melt into his lap. He reached out and started gently carding his hand through his hair. The shaved part at the back felt weird and a little scratchy, and the top felt slightly stiff, like Leif had styled it with something, but then Leif let out a big sigh and seemed to drop off into sleep, so Tobin didn’t bother stopping. 

The hours dragged on. 

Eventually the tv ran out of documentaries, so Tobin turned it off before it cut to the evening news. 

He probably should get up and start dinner, or at least call for takeout, but that would require standing to get his phone, and that seemed like the worst choice he could make, so he just sighed and finally let himself drift off too, leaning against the armrest and with his hand still resting in Leif’s hair. 

When he woke up the next morning, Leif had already left for his Saturday jog. 

3.

Tobin watched Leif’s leg shake up and down underneath the conference table. He had a presentation after Zoey, and clearly he was freaking out about it. 

Personally, Tobin didn’t think he had anything to be worried about. Zoey was smart, sure, but she wasn’t a genius like Leif was, and she was way less charming. 

But clearly Leif didn’t get the memo. 

Quietly, without looking at him, Tobin reached out underneath the table and set his hand on Leif’s knee. 

It immediately stopped shaking. 

And then, very slowly, Tobin felt Leif’s hand move to lay on top of his. 

When Leif stood to present, he smiled at Tobin, small and private and grateful, and Tobin smiled back. 

4.

Leif’s presentation was totally fly, to nobody’s surprise except apparently Leif. Tobin had insisted on going out to celebrate, and Leif hadn’t objected, so they were at a bar and Tobin was smiling and so was Leif and it was actually kinda perfect. 

Tobin watched the lights flash blue-pink-blue on Leif’s face. He looked dangerously kissable which, woah, drunk-Tobin thinks some pretty weird thoughts. He was gonna put that thought in a box, and then burn that box. Mentally. Not really burn things- at this point he was pretty sure his alcohol concentration was so high that he’d burst into flames just by standing near a fire, although considering the fact that part of his brain was still wondering what it’d be like to touch Leif’s cheek, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. 

Tobin threw back another shot. 

If he was being honest with himself, he’d been thinking about kissing Leif long before that night. He just had a very kissable face. And personality. Can a person’s personality be kissable? Tobin didn’t want to think about this. He couldn’t stop thinking about this. 

God, he’d been staring too long, right? What was a totally heterosexual thing to do to diffuse this weird tension? 

Oh god, wait, this meant he wasn’t heterosexual. Put it in the box, Tobin. 

“Bro!” he said suddenly, slamming his empty glass on the countertop. Leif looked at him funnily. “Bro! We need like… a… handshake.”

“A handshake?” 

“Yeah, man. Dude. A secret handshake.” Tobin stood up and immediately sat down again. Bad idea. Dizzy. “For best friends. A best friend secret handshake. We’re best friends, right Leif?”

Leif smiled softly, finally looking away from Tobin to trace patterns on the bar counter with his pinky finger. “Yeah, Tobes. We’re best friends.”

“Good. Good good good. You’re a- you’re a good best friend, Leif. We need a handshake.”

Leif looked up again, then turned on his stool to face Tobin, smiling indulgently. Some corner of Tobin’s head was aware that he was much more sober than Tobin was, but he was mostly too focused on holding back the kiss him kiss him kiss him on the lips and the forehead and the cheek and the top of his head part of his thoughts to worry about much else. 

Tobin turned messily, facing Leif. Their knees bumped. “Okay. Okay okay. So it starts with a fist bump.”

Leif held out a fist agreeably. Tobin tried to hit it and missed it, twice. Leif laughed and stood, only staggering a little. 

“Maybe we should go home, Tobin.”

“No, dude,” Tobin whined. “What about our handshake?” 

Leif looked at the floor and then back up again. “We can make one tomorrow.”

“Promise dude?” Tobin stood up and almost fell over. Leif’s arm caught him and pulled him close to his side, keeping him upright. 

“Yeah.” Leif looked down at him. They were so close. “Promise.” He pushed Tobin away, just a little. He was still close enough to lean on Leif for support but not so close as to… do anything else. 

Tobin dug out his wallet and put two twenty dollar bills on the counter. They headed home. 

5\. 

Leif was hiding in an isolation pod again. 

Tobin wanted to respect his boundaries, he really did, and usually when Leif ran off somewhere alone it was because he wanted to be alone. He was smart like that, didn’t push people away when he really needed company or whatever like Tobin did sometimes. 

It was just that Leif had looked really sad this morning. And his eyes were all puffy and red like he was about to start crying, and his nails were uneven in the way they only got when he started chewing them from stress. 

It was just that Tobin had recently come to the terms with the fact that he was in love with his best friend. And his best friend was sad. And Tobin didn’t think he could just… watch him be sad. 

So when everybody was out for lunch, Tobin rapped a little rhythm on the door of Leif’s isolation pod, then opened it without waiting for a response. 

Leif was staring at something past his laptop screen, crying. He hadn’t even looked up. 

Silently, Tobin awkwardly climbed inside with Leif, curled around him, and closed the door. Leif just buried his face in Tobin’s shoulder, and Tobin’s hand came up to rest on his lower back, tracing small circles there. 

“Hey, Leif,” he eventually said. 

“Hey, Tobin,” Leif responded, voice cracking. 

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

And so they didn’t. Tobin just stayed there, intertwined with Leif, until he was too tired to keep crying. 

+1.

Tobin hadn’t ever been this angry before in his life. Yeah, he started a fist fight when someone insulted Brian David Gilbert and sure, he may have been the one to toilet paper James Tanner’s house when he had called Tobin names that didn’t bear repeating in High School, but he’d never felt like this. 

He’d never felt like he could really, actually hurt someone. He’d never had his vision blur, never had his hands start shaking so bad that they automatically curled into fists. 

If this guy said another word about Leif Donnelly, Tobin didn’t want to think about what he might do. 

Leif reached out and touched Tobin’s shoulder. Leif turned Tobin away from the guy at the bar, and led him out of the building, and to the bus, and through their apartment doorway, and Tobin could still feel his brain buzzing but-

But it was better, now. Softer. Not gone, still angry, but Leif was looking at him like he was something precious and it was pretty hard to be mad at the moment. 

And then Leif tugged Tobin close, to his chest, and wrapped his arms around his sides, and Tobin didn’t feel anything close to angry anymore. 

Just warm. 

Tobin brought his hands up, around Leif’s hips, and held on for dear life. He felt lips brush the crown of his head, so softly, and then he felt Leif try to pull away, and he just held on tighter. 

The lights weren’t flashing, and there wasn’t any documentary playing in the background, and there weren’t any emails, just… just the two of them, hugging in their apartment. 

And everything was going to be okay. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments, all you lovely people!! And for the love of God, tell me if I make a spelling mistake :)


End file.
